This invention relates generally to cable management, and more particularly, to cable support brackets for electrical components.
Numerous cable management systems exist today and are used in various electronics equipment applications, such as telecommunications, data transmission, networking, video and the like. Typically, to install a cable management system, a rack frame is securely mounted to the floor within the room in which the system is to be maintained. Multiple patch panels or boxes are then secured to the frame in a stacked arrangement. Each patch panel includes multiple connector ports (e.g. RJ45 connector ports) along the front face thereof and multiple associated cable connections on the rear face thereof.
Conventional patch panels are generally constructed with a rectangular or square horizontal cross sectional geometry or footprint. Each patch panel includes a planar front face. When the patch panels are mounted within the frame, the front faces align with one another in a vertical plane. The patch panels have a height in the vertical direction and a width in the lateral direction. The number of patch panels that are vertically stacked upon one another and the width of the individual patch panels determine the outer dimensions of a connectivity interface within which individual connector ports are retained and arranged in a desired pattern.
As information technology evolves and improves, the need increases for each patch panel system to support more and more individual users. As the number of users increases so does the need for more connector ports and cables which increases the overall physical size. To add capacity at the connectivity interface, the front face is expanded vertically by stacking additional patch panels upon one another. Alternatively or in addition, the connectivity interface is expanded laterally by increasing the width of each patch panel.
With the increase in the number of cables within patch panel systems, cable management systems typically include cable support bars that are coupled to the frame and are spaced apart from the patch panels. The cable support bars direct the cables away from the rear of the patch panels and generally organize the cables. The cable support bars heretofore have been constructed to permanently attach to the rack frame using fasteners, such as screws. The installation of such cable support bars have been a tedious and time consuming task, which increases the overall cost of installing conventional cable management systems. With the increase in the number of patch panels and the number of cables, a greater number of cable support bars are needed. Due to space constraints, it may be difficult to secure the cable support bars to the frame.
A need remains for an improved cable management system having cable supports that may be installed in a time-efficient and reliable manner.